……..Jack Hogan, an Oconee citizen and 1954 Graduate of Bogart High School with a current Oconee County resident, Archie Crenshaw, of Bishop. The two were basketball teammates at Lipscomb College in Tennessee in the mid 50’s. They went separate ways but kept in touch.

As we go through life, we find coincidences and events that makes one think how small the world really is. One I remember is that once at an Officers Club in Kaiserslautern Germany in 1963, I just happened to stand by a familiar looking face that I had known in grammar school and later at the University of Georgia. Carlton Fullilove, formerly of High Shoals, was two years older and was an Air Force Lieutenant –UGA ROTC. I was an Army Lieutenant-UGA ROTC 1962. We renewed our friendship and spent Thanksgiving of 1963 together in Heidelberg, Germany.

.

Recently, information came to AVOC of an Oconee citizen and 1954 Graduate of Bogart High School relationship with a current Oconee County resident, Archie Crenshaw, of Bishop. The two were basketball teammates at Lipscomb College in Tennessee in the mid 50’s. They went separate ways but kept in touch. Recently Jack saw an article about Archie being named to the Athletic Hall of Fame at his Jackson, TN, High School. Ironically, Jack retired to the hills of Tennessee while Archie retired to Oconee County, Georgia.

Longing for a career in professional athletics, the day came when Archie Crenshaw realized it wasn’t meant to be.

But Crenshaw, who has resided in Bishop, Georgia since 1988, understood he had another mission, and that was to start one.

One of his greatest blessings came as a result of his having coached baseball at Georgia State University in Atlanta in the 1960s. More than a decade after he finished coaching, one of the pitchers on his first team joined him in starting a Christian mission in Honduras.

“That area of rural East Central Honduras was inhabited by the poorest of the poor, with many families of six or eight persons having an annual income of $ 400 a year or less.” Crenshaw said. “We were able to acquire a teaching ranch which God has blessed over the past quarter of a century to become a lighthouse for the impoverished population of the Agalta Valley. Honduras Outreach, Inc. (the Christian non-profit organization) has now developed multiple health clinics, an expansive educational system, more than forty kindergartens and over 125 model villages throughout the valley.

“That pitcher became the CEO of Honduras Outreach … funny how things work out.”

Things worked out really well otherwise for Crenshaw who will be inducted into the Jackson-Madison County Sports Hall of Fame at the Carl Perkins Civic Center Thursday.

A three-sport star at Jackson High School, Crenshaw first coached baseball at David Lipscomb College in Nashville while serving as an assistant basketball coach at the school.

Listening to Crenshaw talk, you come away with the understanding that the number of runs scored or the wins he recorded are not what drives this man.

“My greatest achievement? Learning the value of teamwork and the power of encouragement — and learning that life is not all about me, but rather all about Him.” Crenshaw said. “Somebody asked one time, ‘How can you tell if someone needs encouragement?’” And the answer was, “If he is breathing.”

“You can achieve almost anything in this life with faith and a team of good people in which everybody is giving his best all the time.”

After his prowess in baseball, basketball and football at Jackson High, Crenshaw was at his best when he was offered a scholarshipto play football at Mississippi State University, but elected to play baseball and basketball at Lipscomb instead.

He pitched four years for the Bisons’ baseball team and was a three-year starter for the basketball program.

After receiving his Master’s Degree from Vanderbilt University, he became the head baseball coach at Lipscomb and assisted with the men’s basketball team from 1959 to 1962.

His desire for education continued and while working on his Ph.D in Business Administration at Georgia State, the university started a varsity baseball program and Crenshaw was selected to become the team’s first head coach.

After preaching from 1955 until 1972 (the last ten of those years in Atlanta), Crenshaw built a 216-unit, fourteen-story high rise apartment complex for Seniors, and after word spread, the process was repeated approximately 80 times across the country.

“I grew up poor on the streets of Memphis before I moved to Jackson,” Crenshaw said. “So I was thankful for having a measure of financial independence.”

“We (wife Geneele, originally from Jackson) worked hard, invested our money, and received the favor and grace of God.”

He later turned his attention to franchising and developed and owned Burger King restaurants in Tennessee, Captain D’s Seafood restaurants in Indiana and Zaxby’s chicken restaurants in North Carolina. He is presently the franchisor/owner of Mirko Pasta Italian restaurants in five southeastern states.

Crenshaw said he doesn’t get back to his hometown as often as he would like, but he cherishes the memories of his boyhood days at Jackson High School and remembers with an attitude of gratitude the teachers who helped provide the foundation for a great education.

“I wanted to stay in athletics,” Crenshaw said. “But I came to the conclusion that I wasn’t going to be a pro athlete, so I moved on.

“Life lessons are life lessons, whether they are learned in basketball, starting a business or the ministry.”

See Jack Hogan’s comments about their teammate days at Lipscomb College.

Jack Hogan - Archie Crenshaw - Bishop, GA - # 1

April 27, 2012

.

Since Archie Crenshaw is a resident of Oconee County, I thought you would find the article below interesting. He has resided in Bishop, Georgia for the past 24 years. Archie and I were teammates on the Lipscomb University basketball team in the mid to late fifties. Archie was bigger and smarter than the little guy from Bogart, Georgia. Although I didn't play as much as he did, I could out-dribble and shoot 25 footers from the cheap seats better. Ha!

.

In this connection, I am sending in separate e-mails several team pictures of the Lipscomb Bisons taken in the good old days.... memories that I cherish very much with Archie and other teammates. I appreciate Archie and his good life, and his wife Geneele.

.

Incidentally, Archie tells me that he bought a piece of his farm in Oconee from the Perry Michael family. Archie says "we love Oconee County".

Not Exactly, Jack Hogan is believed to be the only graduate of Bogart High School to go on to play four years of College Basketball. He was no slouch on the Bogart teams and Bogart won some championships in his day.